Early Tiger 1 - 2003 vintage - turret deck bend

[Sam Hough]

Hello,

I'm building up the courage to correct the bend of the turret deck of our 15 year old model.

I'd like to measure many many times then bend once...

Please could somebody tell me the accurate measurement from the "front" to the where the bend should be? I've marked the two best reference points I could see in the picture. Presumably they could also be different to the real thing and so newer models?

I have been googling but nothing conclusive so far.

Many thanks

Sam

[Adrian Harris]

The GIF on this page gives the dimensions from the mantlet pivots:

http://tiger1.info/EN/Turret-external-fittings.html

You will need to check the turret sides once you have fixed the location of the turret bend,
in case the change in angle on the sides doesn't match your new bend location.

And the vision slit ports on either side are in the wrong place too

Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

This is how I was going to tackle it:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... 459#p33459

Adrian.

Blimey, six years ago - amazing where the time goes...

[Sam Hough]

Thanks Adrian,

After a first pass it does look like the turret casting has the bend in the wrong place too I didn't know that.

Reassuringly measuring from the back of Tamiya 1/16th to the bend (scaling up) and the gif you sent (scaling down) and measuring from the front matches up within a millimetre.

Not sure how accurate the Tamiya is. My Armortek Tiger has a step just before A (on my photo) that the Tamiya doesn't. Will have to hunt for a photo of that area.

Thanks for the forum link, I had seen that. I'm not aiming quite so high, I'd just like to have the two big bits of the turret match up.

Cheers

Sam

[Sam Hough]

Hello,

As an extra sanity check please could somebody measure, on a more recent Armortek Tiger 1, from the back of the turret to the bend?

Thanks

Sam

[Sam Hough]

In case somebody else is looking for the same thing...

My conclusion from http://tiger1.info/EN/Turret-asymmetry.html (and sanity checking again Tamiya 1/16th) is...

Form rear of turret to mid bend:
(1160 + 325) = 1485 mm (1:1)
-> 247.5 mm (1:6)

[Vince Cutajar]

Sam, if you want I can take a measurement of the bend of the turret roof from my model but be advised that mine is a late variant so do not know if it would be different.

You could also ask Kian. I would assume that they still have the CAD drawings of your model and if so can give you an accurate position of the bend.

Vince

[Sam Hough]

Hi Vince,

Yes please, that would be very kind. Getting the bend in the wrong place in the deck would be bind enough but I'd hate to grind the main casting away. I think early to late had the bend in the same place.

Regards

Sam

[Vince Cutajar]

Sam, this morning I went to measure my turret roof. As I said previously, mine is a 2017 model depicting a late variant. I would not be surprised that there would be dimensional differences between the 2003 and 2017 models.

From the back of the turret roof plate to the centre of the bend I have 232.92mm.
From the front of the turret roof plate to the centre of the bend I have 144.06mm.
Thickness of the plate is 6mm.

Hope this is of use to you. My turret is still in the boxes so can't really say, but I would have assumed that the actual shape of the turret would give you an indication of where the bend should be.

Vince

[Sam Hough]

Thanks Vince,

I believe the turret deck thickness changed in the mid/late Tigers. I'll check dimensions.

I think I'll be busy as apparently my edition has other bits in the wrong place so since I'm starting from scratch. Those are definitely different on early vs mid/late.

Cheers

Sam

[Sam Hough]

Assuming turret wall is to scale (80mm 1:1 -> 13.33mm 1:6) then 232.92 + 13.33 = 246.25 so not far off 247.5 (from http://tiger1.info/EN/Turret-asymmetry.html) I doubt I can bend 3mm sheet that accurately anyway.

[David Battson]

Hi Sam,
As a bit of a workaround to make sure the turret roof bends where you want it to, try flipping it over and cut a groove in the underside. If you have access to a milling machine then a 3mm round headed cutter will be just the job. If not, then a saw cut and some filing. Don't go too deep with the groove though or the crease on the top side will look too sharp, best to practice on some scrap alloy.
Good luck
David

[Sam Hough]

Thanks David,

I tried that on the original steel one and made a bit of a mess. Do you think the 3mm alu will be tough to bend? or just tough to bend accurately? Luckily it is an early Tiger

Cheers

Sam

[Adrian Harris]

> Do you think the 3mm alu will be tough to bend?

Depends what alloy you have. The 5000 series are the easiest to bend without it cracking.

I used something similar to one of these to bend the ends of a replacement 3mm aluminium Sherman floor:

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... ctid=19761

You won't get a crisp bend but it will only be a few degrees anyway.

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

You will definitely need a sheet metal bender similar to what Adrian suggested unless you have a friendly sheet metal worker that you know.

Another thing that might help with aluminium, is to heat the bend line just enough that when touching it with a matchstick is starts to blacken it. On second thoughts I use this trick for tight bends so that the aluminium does not crack and you are only doing a shallow bend.

Vince